God is With You in Your Trials

Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – April 13, 2017

By Tripp Prince

“Lord, the one you love is sick.” When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”  John 11:3-4

For most of us, it doesn’t take very long to think of someone we know and love that is gravely ill. Perhaps a parent, child, close family friend, or even yourself. Though we often try and push it to the periphery of our daily lives, if we are honest, suffering and sickness is something that shapes and defines what it means to be human. It is often the source of our fears and the root of our anxiety.

As Christians, we are invited to take our pain, brokenness, and sickness and sit at the feet of Jesus as we seek healing and new life in Him. As we follow Him, we quickly learn that He loves us and promises to give us His life, and yet we also learn that the road of sickness and suffering is a well trodden path that He uses to bring about this new life in us. In fact, it’s the very path He walked.

In Lent, Christians around the world are invited to journey with Jesus, to walk with Him through the desert, to sing our hosannas to the arriving king on Palm Sunday, to join Him in the intimacy of the Last Supper, and to climb the hill and encounter afresh His passion and suffering on the cross. If Easter glory is the final destination, suffering and death is the path that leads to the empty tomb.

“Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him” (John 11:16).

To look at the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is to hear afresh the word of God to you today: “Do you trust me?” Do we believe that, like Lazarus, that we are loved by the Lord Jesus, that we are never forgotten or left alone in our suffering and trial? Can we trust that in our suffering God is still able to bring about our healing?

You may feel abandoned and forgotten. You may feel as though there is no end in sight to your suffering or the pain endured by those you love. As hard as it certainly is, we must seek the Lord in the midst of our suffering, trusting that there is no pain or trial that is foreign to Him. We serve a God who knows what it is like to suffer, even to the point of death.

As we approach the glory of Easter, let us be willing to join the Lord in His death that we might also know Him in His resurrection. This is surely the mystery of our faith: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. Thanks be to God!

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